Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska

Omaha’s disputed years

Nebraska Territory’s government first sat in Omaha. Territorial governor Francis Burt took office at Bellevue in October 1854 but died soon after, and acting governor Thomas Cuming called the first territorial legislature to meet in Omaha, where it sat from January 16 to March 16, 1855. The choice was bitterly disputed, and the controversy over the capital lasted until after statehood.

Choosing Lincoln

When Nebraska became a state in 1867, lawmakers decided to move the capital to a site more reachable from all parts of the new state, rather than one on its eastern edge. An act of June 14, 1867, made the governor, the secretary of state and the auditor a commission to choose it. They looked at parts of Seward, Saunders, Butler and Lancaster counties and picked the small village of Lancaster, south of the Platte River. It was renamed Lincoln, and the new capital was also to be the home of the state university, the penitentiary and the state hospital.

On December 3, 1868, Governor David Butler proclaimed the removal of the seat of government and the state archives to the new capitol in Lincoln, and the Legislature first met there in January 1869.

Three capitols on one site

Lincoln’s first two capitols did not last. The first, built in 1867 and 1868, and the second, built from 1881 to 1888, both suffered from poor construction. In 1920 the architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue won a national design competition for a third. It was built in four phases from 1922 to 1932, around the old capitol, which stayed in use until offices moved into the new building in late 1924.

A tower on the plains

Goodhue’s Capitol was the first statehouse to break from the domed form of the US Capitol by using an office tower. A 400-foot tower rises from a square base laid out as a cross within a square, and on top stands The Sower, a 19-foot bronze statue. The building is clad in Indiana limestone. The whole project, with furnishings and landscaping, came in just under its $10 million budget, at about $9.8 million, and was fully paid for when the landscaping was finished in 1934.

One house, two chambers

The Capitol was designed for a legislature with two houses, but in 1934 Nebraska’s voters approved abolishing the state Senate and House in favor of a single chamber, which first met in 1937. It is still the only one-house state legislature in the country, and its members are elected without party labels. Lawmakers chose the larger West Chamber, and the smaller East Chamber was left without a lawmaking body.

Visiting

The Capitol is open to visitors. The Capitol Commission’s visitor page has tour times and details.